BPP ‘PlayOffs’ teams to write, act in 24 hours

Imagine what it would be like if a professor assigned a 10-page paper and said it was due by the end of the day. Imagine being unable to procrastinate.

Now imagine the Bloomington Playwrights Project’s “PlayOffs”: Playwrights are given just one day to write an entire play. What’s more, the actors must memorize the lines in an even shorter time. The directors must work feverishly to get everything before the just-born play takes the stage – that night.

In keeping with the baseball motif, this fundraiser for Bloomington Playwrights Project includes nine teams. Each team has a playwright, a director and several actors. Teams are randomly chosen the night before the play is to be presented.

“We literally draw a name out of a hat,” said Breshaun Joyner, education director of Bloomington Playwrights Project. “There is a central theme every play must have, and a certain line of dialogue, but nobody knows what that is until it’s time to write.”
The audience votes for its favorite playwright and favorite actor, or most valuable player.

In the past, Joyner was involved with “PlayOffs” as an actor and producer. This year, she plans on watching as a member of the audience.

Nick Moore is one of the playwrights involved in this year’s series of plays. The 28-year-old is in his second year at Bloomington Playwrights Project. He said he remembers last year’s play as being a beneficial experience.

“As a writer, it’s interesting to me,” he said. “It’s a challenge to only have 12 hours to develop a play. The funny thing to me is it wasn’t any worse than my other plays, so I guess I could write a play every 12 hours if I really put my mind to it. It’s really a lesson in motivation.”

Nothing compares to seeing his hours of hard work come to fruition, Moore said.
“As a playwright, it’s fascinating to see things in your mind come to life,” he said. “The experience of writing it is so intense, you feel a little strange.”

He also said the experience is everything about a play intensified. Part of that intensity is the initial feelings he has after the play topic is announced.

“I go home and I panic for two hours, and my panic is resolved when I have the basic skeleton of the play,” Moore said.

Rachael Himsel, 32, began experimenting with playwright material while writing comedy as an undergraduate at DePauw University.

The Jasper, Ind., native will be another one of the many playwrights participating in “PlayOffs.”

Himsel, who is currently working on her master’s degree in art education, said she enjoys the intensity of the stress-filled day.

“For me, the deadline creates a great adrenaline rush,” she said. “So many of us get great ideas, but we get busy. We say, ‘We’ll get to it later,’ and we never do. By committing to the ‘PlayOffs,’ you’re committing to completing at least one play.”
Himsel also said she enjoys all of the ups and downs of the eventful process.

“I love just about everything about the ‘PlayOffs,’” she said. “From pulling names out of hats, to getting to know your actors, to drinking the eight cups of coffee and then scrapping the last two pages you wrote because it sucked.”

Though she wants to win the competition, she admits the competition makes it fun. Above all, she wants to look back on her work and feel good about it.

“I want to write something that I can be proud of, and that will, ideally, move people in some way,” Himsel said.



‘PlayOffs’
When: 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and Nov. 21 and Nov. 22
Where: Bloomington Playwrights Project, 107 W. Ninth St.
More info: Tickets are $10 and are available at the Sunrise Box Office or online at www.bloomingtonarts.info.